Almost Finished!

Wow! The last two weeks have gone by SO FAST. After the painting marathon, we had contractor after contractor come by, and the house was literally BUZZING with work. (picture, saw-mill set up in the living room)

Trim is almost done, plumbing is 90% there, the vinyl floors are in, washer and dryer work, all the toilets flush, and sinks work.....it's pretty amazing!

Ben installed the appliances this week (we purchased our own online)

One thing important to note: The fridge is cabinet-depth. It was a little extra $ to get it, and you end up with about 6" less space to store food in.....but it's WORTH IT. With this kitchen design, a regular fridge would have stuck WAY out into the needed maneuvering space. I was surprised to see that even with the cabinet-depth fridge, you still see a little sticking out into the room on the pantry side.


Cabinets:  Adair gave us a wonderful, wonderful deal of the gorgeous raised-panel beech cabinet for no extra charge---IF they came without stain. I mentioned this before, saying how pleased I was, I wanted to stain/paint them black. Et Cetera. After hundreds of hours of research, changing my mind 8 or 9 times, looking at the developing light in the kitchen, and finally seeing the gorgeous green paint on the walls, I ended up feeling there was not quite enough light in the kitchen area to do a great job with all-black cabinets. So, I went with the look in this photo:

So far, I've painted all the faces and doors with a creamy "polar bear" white. Next step is to add a rich chocolate colored glaze just to the crevices. This will age it and soften the glaring white a bit.The island got a great satin black--2 coats, and Ben added the bead board and posts to the end for some detail. I'm DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY with it!!! The only thing that could make it better would be some sparkling white corian countertops (or granite or marble. )

The cabinet saga was a long, drawn-out process. I gave myself originally 4 days to do 40 cabinet doors plus faces. It ended up taking me more like 40 hours. I worked every day (but one) from Thursday to the following Sunday (tonight), and I still have 2 doors to finish up with top coats. My shoulders are killing me. Oh yeah.......and glaze them all. :)

The upstairs cabinets are pure white, while the downstairs are cream. I'll post more pics as I walk through tomorrow. Off to get my shoulders rubbed down and take some tylenol!! Painting cabinets in a 2100 sf home is NO JOKE!!!!!! (but totally worth it!)